Effects of lithium insertion and deinsertion into V 2 O 5 thin films: Optical, structural, and absorption properties

The lithiated/delithiated vanadium pentoxide films deposited by sol‐gel spin coating on indium tin oxide–coated glass substrates were analyzed by sputter‐induced photon spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and optical absorption techniques. First, it is shown that the crystalline structure of V 2 O 5 after intercalation remains practically unchanged. Particularly, in the optical spectra during 5 keV Kr + ion bombardment of clean, intercalated, and deintercalated V 2 O 5 films, a series of sharp lines and unexpected continuum radiation were observed and well explained. It is also demonstrated that the intercalation and deintercalation of lithium have strong influences on various characteristics of pentoxide vanadium. The interpretations of the obtained results in the 3 experiments—X‐ray diffraction, sputter‐induced photon spectroscopy, and optical absorption techniques—are coherent and complement each other.